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NASCAR Adds TNT & Amazon in New $8 Billion TV Deal! · Kenny Wallace Media

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  We are super excited about what 2025 is going to bring to us
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  because of where the distribution that we now have
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  across here, which is a a combination of obviously
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  broadcast, cable and streaming. We want to meet race fans where
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  they are or potential race fans where they are.
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  We think this group does exactly that for us.
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  So we couldn't be happier to have them on board.
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  The other thing I want to talk about very quickly is what our
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  industry, the NASCAR industry has done to come together with.
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  You're talking about drivers, race tracks, our race teams.
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  Our industry comes together better than any other sports
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  property when there is a mountain to climb.
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  And that's what happened in 2020.
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  That's what happened honestly, just for the sport overall and
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  you look at the growth of where the sport is and I think it's a
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  testament to the success of the sport to have these world class
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  media companies all want to be part of our sport plus plus The
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  CW. So I'm thrilled to have these
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  guys come LA, Seattle, New York, NY all coming here to to say
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  welcome and excited to be part of our future in 2025.
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  Yeah. Thank you for that, Steve.
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  And I want to ask you one more question, because you've said
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  this quite a bit, but we've talked about the optimization of
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  media rights. Could you talk a bit about how
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  these partners fit that vision of optimization and what that
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  is? Sure.
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  Well, he didn't ask that question before.
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  So the publicist riff on this, I think it's exactly right.
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  So when we were set out to do the deals, the deals really were
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  a combination of optimizing from a distribution standpoint where
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  NASCAR was going to be. And obviously, there's a
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  financial component as well. And we were thrilled with where
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  we netted out on, on the distribution.
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  And I think that optimization is going to be big, big for the
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  growth of the sport that we're going to experience in 25 and
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  beyond, OK. And Mr. Hurst, the fan is at the
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  center of all of this. So can you tell us a little bit
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  about what the fans can expect beginning in 2025?
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  Yeah, I I think what we've seen over the last five years with
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  the industry working together as you've seen.
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  Schedule innovation, you've seen on track product innovation, but
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  we wanted to continue to push the envelope from a distribution
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  perspective as as well. So Steve spoke about the mix of
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  broadcast, cable, direct to consumer and streaming.
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  We wanted to make sure that all the innovation that we're doing
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  from a sport perspective that we were getting in front of new
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  demos and that we were setting ourselves up well for for the
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  future. So with Fox starting off the
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  season with the Clash and the Daytona 500.
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  Moving into a streaming opportunity with Amazon and and
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  Jay's team that we're super excited about a lot of
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  innovation in that summer series over the last two to three
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  years. As you guys have seen after
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  Amazon moves off, then we go to Warner Brothers Discovery and
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  Louis's team with with TNT and Max and then finally closing out
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  the season with with Rick and the NBC Sports Group.
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  We have special partnerships and special relationships with our
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  incumbents at at FOX and NBC. Steve spoke about how they were
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  there for us through 2020. We think we were there for the
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  networks as well, but we're really welcome kind of the new
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  partnerships with with Amazon, with The CW and with that with
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  Warner Brothers Discovery. Look forward to kind of what
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  this means from a fan perspective, potential alternate
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  broadcasts, potential opportunity to get in front of
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  of younger fans as well. So super excited about the
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  growth potential between this, this new strategy.
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  Excellent. Thank you.
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  And so Eric, Fox Sports and NASCAR have been partners since
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  2001. Which means that when this new
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  deal starts, we'll be celebrating 25 years together.
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  Can you talk a bit about why this is such a great fit and
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  what you envision for the next 7 years of this relationship?
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  Sure. First I'd like to say thank you
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  to Jim and Ben and Lisa and Mike and Steve and Brian and Steve
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  for just being you know, long time friends and great partners
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  and we can't wait to start this next.
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  New chapter and have great times at any track that we go to with
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  you guys, especially Talladega. The Look we will cross 3 decades
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  when this program New chapter starts and you know nothing
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  makes us more proud than being the one that gets to kick off
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  the season with the Great American race, the Daytona 500.
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  Everybody in this room has been to it and everybody knows how
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  special it is and unique it is to start off a sport with its
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  biggest event. And we want to keep pushing and
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  we want to keep making it bigger and better.
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  And it really is one of the crown jewels at Fox Sports.
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  So we're looking forward to that and we know that NASCAR is
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  investing a lot to make it even bigger and better as well.
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  And I'm actually excited to work with all three partners here.
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  It, you know, this sport is really unique in that, you know
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  we're not going at the same time we're handing off, we're kind of
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  drafting right like off of each other and pushing each other.
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  And I think we each bring something unique to to it,
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  whether you've been doing it for a long time or whether you're
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  new and going to bring something new that we can all steal.
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  And we're going to be collaborating and pushing and
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  and helping promote to make this sport successful for all of us.
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  So that's what I'm excited about.
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  Yeah. Thank you.
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  And so, Jay, Prime Video has quickly become a destination for
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  direct to consumer live sports, most notably the NFL and
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  Thursday Night Football, as well as your recent Black Friday
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  football. What does NASCAR bring to the
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  table in terms of live sports in your programming mix?
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  Yeah, thanks. First of all, Eric was not
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  joking about stealing. For anyone who knows Eric, see
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  the laughs. Did you see that?
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  That's truth. That's like truth coming
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  through. So I do want to echo what Eric
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  said, though and really think that whole NASCAR team, it's
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  been fantastic to get to this point.
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  And as Jim just said earlier, it's really the starting line.
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  Again and and I can't wait for 2025 to get here in terms of you
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  know why NASCAR for Amazon, what we really look for our premium
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  tier one sports that can move the needle for prime and NASCAR
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  fits that sport that has passionate fan base, a large fan
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  base where the sport is must see for them that is extremely
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  valuable. And ultimately what we're trying
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  to do is make the Prime membership program more valuable
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  for our Prime members. That's what we try to do in
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  every decision we make. So NASCAR fits perfectly to
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  that. And then you know we really want
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  to go innovate. You know, we look at this as a
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  seven-year plus partnership. I'm already talking about the
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  renewal later, but you know, but that's how we want to invest so
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  that we can innovate for the long term and we're excited to
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  do that. We're excited to reach a younger
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  audience. Who may have cut the cord and
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  not not watching as much, which we've been able to do with
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  Thursday Night Football as an example.
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  So we're excited to be part of it and excited to work across
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  this partnership group as well. Yeah.
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  Thank you for that. And I like that we're already
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  talking renewals here. So, Louise, at WBD Sports, you
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  continue to expand your live sports portfolio, which is
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  accessible via Max. I'm a subscriber as well as
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  across cable platforms such as TNT and TRU TV.
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  What is it about NASCAR that made sense as a pillar in your
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  sports programming? Yes, thank you.
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  I think we, we, we looked at about 3 big things, I would say.
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  One was sort of the value of the audience, the very passionate
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  audience that NASCAR has, the large audiences that it brings.
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  And I think to to Jay's point, sort of stealing a little bit of
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  what you said is the idea that we're in the tier one sports
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  business. If you look at what we do, we
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  don't have a 24 hour sports channel.
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  We really concentrate on on a few and big things and NASCAR
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  fits right in because of the audience, because of the sport.
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  It's a high stakes sport when you watch it.
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  It's a great viewing experience and I think that's those are the
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  kinds of sports that we want to get behind.
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  The second one was that what could we bring to the table,
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  right? And when you have a portfolio
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  that has TNT, one of the best cable channels.
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  You know we have Tru TV up and coming as a as a channel that is
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  going to have more and more sports.
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  We just recently put all of our sports on Max and now it's
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  becoming one of those primary streaming platforms for sports.
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  We have Bleacher Report on House of highlights which is going to
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  play a big role in bringing younger viewers to to the NASCAR
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  family. So from a portfolio perspective
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  it fits right in with what we want to do.
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  And I think the third thing is the partnership you know and and
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  and I I think that the France family for trusting us.
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  It is a big part. We were, we were rights holders
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  until 2014 I believe. So we know what the combination
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  and the partnership can do together.
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  We're already imagining sort of new ideas and what we can do
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  differently and I think that partnership for us was very
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  important. We we we look at this as a very
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  long term partnership and I know that our through the world
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  through the best class production team.
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  Working hand in hand with NASCAR can bring great things to the
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  table and then when you put all of our assets together, I think
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  it's it's it's part of the the the formula here to try to make
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  the sport bigger and better and not only for NASCAR and for the
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  fans, but also for for us as well.
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  So very excited about it. All right.
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  Thank you. And last but not least, Rick,
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  NBC Sports and NASCAR have a deep and prosperous history.
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  Can you talk about why continuing to have NASCAR's
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  significant part of your portfolio made sense?
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  Well, I think a few things. It starts with the partnership
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  first and foremost. I mean NASCAR is right at the
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  very top of our portfolio in terms of the the tightness, the
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  relationship that we have with the France family, Jim, Lisa,
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  Ben, certainly Steve and Brian, working with them every day to
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  improve the sport to, you know, continue to drive ratings for
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  NBC Sports. We know working with them over a
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  long period of time, there's going to be a certain amount of
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  innovation over the last 10 years.
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  Stage racing, tweaks to the playoffs, all that really plays
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  into one. NASCAR and then you look at the
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  product itself, I mean it's exciting racing, you know, young
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  crop drivers hitting the hitting the hitting the circuit.
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  We're incredibly excited about how it fits into our Q3 and Q4
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  schedule. And you know working with these
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  guys too is the anchor leg of the four by 4 relay that we're
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  in here. You know, we couldn't be more
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  excited where the sports going to be in the future.
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  All right. Thank you for that.
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  So Mr. Phelps, I'll turn it back to you for one last word.
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  Wait, I forgot one thing I'm super excited about.
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  You know, as much as it sucks that he's no longer on the
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  track, what's going to be new this coming year is that Kevin
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  Harvick is going to be joining us in the booth.
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  And I think he's here today, right?
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  Harv, are you here? Yeah.
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  And I think I heard Clint somewhere.
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  So I'm super excited that Kevin's joining us.
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  And I think you're going to make not only Fox's coverage, but
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  NASCAR as good as it possibly can be that you're not on the
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  track. So forgot about that before.
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  Sorry, it's awesome. Welcome Kevin.
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  So I'll close it out. Interesting listening to these
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  guys talk and hopefully everyone got as excited as I did
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  listening to them and the unique pieces about what they're going
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  to bring to our sport. There was a common theme
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  throughout all of them though. It was really our fans and the
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  quality of our fans, the size of the fan base, it's it is they
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  are the best fans in all the sports.
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  So for our fans, what they can expect moving forward is world
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  class production distribution that is going to be the same in
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  many cases and new and others. And it is our job at NASCAR
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  collectively as the stakeholders to bring more and more people
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  into this great sport. And I think what we have just
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  announced today is going to do exactly that.
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  All right. So thank you to everybody on
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  stage and those in the crowd that helped make this historic
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  announcement happen. We're thrilled for what's in
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  store for 2024 and we're equally excited to embark on this next
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  chapter of our great sport, working together with these
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  partners on stage to the media on site.
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  We're going to take a moment to do some photos up here and then
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  we're going to also ask that the family come up and take some
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  photos as well. Following those photos, we will
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  have on stage participants available for breakout
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  interviews in the back, so look for that.
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  But thank you everyone. We look forward to officially
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  crowning our National Series champions tomorrow night, as
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  well as enjoying the festivities between now and then.
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  Have a great rest of your NASCAR championship week in wonderful
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  Nashville, TN Thank you all.